Temperance
by Lady Arreya
Summary: Inspired by ESTK's story, "Germinating Sin." Kind of a sequel, but with a different take on why Ben and Gwen can’t be together. BxG.


Title: Temperance  
Rating: T  
Summary: Inspired by ESTK's story, "Germinating Sin." Kind of a sequel, but with a different take on why Ben and Gwen can't be together. BxG.

Author's Note: This story was written before "What Are Little Girls Made Of" aired.

7/26/08 update: I recently watched the episode, "Plumbers' Helpers," and sure enough, Ben and Gwen are in his room with the door closed! She's even sitting on his bed. I don't know about y'all, but when I was 15, my parents would never have allowed me to be alone with a boy in his/my room with the door closed.

* * *

He had kept to his word and let it go. As much as he could, anyway. She could feel the intensity of his longing for her, but he kept his distance, as they had agreed. He hadn't mentioned it again since that night.

Now she was having difficulty letting go. She had underestimated her ability to resist him. Sleeping with him had only made it worse. How could she have possibly imagined that it would help?

She'd had a moment of weakness and given in to him. They had always been close, but now… Now she was constantly aware of him. There was an unbreakable bond between them. She craved that physical and emotional intimacy again. She tried to shut it out of her mind, but everything reminded her of how good it had felt to be with him. No matter how hard she tried to forget. Every look, every touch, the sound of his laugh, the scent of his skin…

It would be so easy to tell him that she had changed her mind. She knew that if she so much as hinted that she wanted to change their agreement, he wouldn't hesitate.

But she couldn't. She had told herself over and over again that it could never be. That she shouldn't think of him that way. That their families would be shocked and horrified if they had any inkling of their feelings for each other. Not to mention what they had been doing together.

It wasn't so much that they were cousins. It was more that it was a violation of the trust their parents had placed in them. For all of her life, she had been allowed complete freedom to spend time alone with Ben. She was allowed to date boys that her parents approved of, but she certainly couldn't have any over at her house unchaperoned or hang out at their houses without parental supervision. But those rules didn't apply to Ben because he was her cousin and they had grown up together. She knew her parents thought they were like brother and sister. The problem was that they weren't, and her feelings for him were anything but sisterly.

Ben's parents had similar rules. He was allowed to date, but he couldn't have any girls over unchaperoned either. But again, the rules didn't apply to her. She and Ben had spent countless hours together in her room or his with the door closed, and their parents had never said anything. She and Ben were permitted to have all the privacy they wanted with each other.

That would all change if their parents found out what had really been going on. Her parents would never let her be alone with him ever again. They let her go off with him every night because they trusted him. They never suspected how he felt about her or what he wanted from her. What he'd already had from her.

She knew her brother would also be furious. Even if she told him it was what she had wanted, Ken wouldn't believe it. He was too protective of her. He would most certainly blame Ben for taking advantage of her. She couldn't let that happen. She adored her older brother, and Ben thought the world of him, too. It would devastate him if Ken started hating him.

Ben's parents would be upset with her too. They always thought she was such a good influence on him. If only they knew. They would be so disappointed in her.

And they would all definitely blame Grandpa Max for not supervising them carefully enough when they were younger, for getting them involved with fighting aliens, and on and on and on. She could imagine the fight that would start. She couldn't bear to start a family rift over this. It would wreak havoc on all their relationships, and their family would never be the same again.

It was bad enough that she already had to hide her magic powers and alien-fighting activities from her parents. They had no idea where she was off to every night. If they found out, they'd never let her out of the house again.

She had to be strong and hold firm to the boundaries they had established. They had to concentrate on saving Earth from being taken over by aliens. She couldn't let herself be distracted by her feelings for him.

Love was dangerous when it interfered with your judgment and your focus on the task at hand.

She'd seen this firsthand with the Galactic Enforcers. They'd almost been destroyed because Tini and Synaptak had been too preoccupied with protecting someone they loved instead of paying adequate attention to the villains.

It hurt so much already, fighting alongside him and seeing him get hurt. She didn't think she could take it if they were more than just cousins.

She didn't want him saying the words. She could already feel how much he loved her. Hearing him say it made it so much harder. She was so afraid she was going to break down and give in. That at any moment she would throw all caution to the wind and tell him how much she loved him and wanted to be with him.

But she couldn't. She had always been the sensible one, the one who reasoned with him when he was being impulsive.

She was so tired of it sometimes. She was miserable without him, and she could tell he felt the same.

Maybe when they were adults, they could do what they wanted, but for right now, there was no way they could be together.

She only wished that her heart would accept that.

The End


End file.
